Religious groups realizing pitfall of Obamacare

February 12, 2012

Thomas Jefferson said: “To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”

The third president wasn’t Catholic and, arguably, probably not Christian. But he understood that for the government to compel people to pay for something they find morally repugnant is “sinful and tyrannical.” The 44th president clearly thinks otherwise.

Catholic hospitals and charities are discovering the harm inherent in President Barack Obama’s intrusive health care law. They are joined by many others, including Lutheran, Jewish and Evangelical Christian groups, vehemently protesting mandates that employers must provide contraceptive and abortifacient coverage, even when it violates their constitutionally protected religious beliefs. We join their complaint.

President Obama has elevated his vision of “enormous health benefits” for women by mandating those services, despite the blatant violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free exercise of religion.

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio characterized the mandate as an assault on “the constitutional right of religious expression,” while Republican House Speaker John Boehner, like Rubio, a Catholic, concurred and vowed to stop the regulation. Even “a handful of high-profile Catholic Democrats are bailing on the president and joining the GOP chorus,” Politico reported.

Unfortunately, many, including Catholic organizations, paved the way for such government intrusion with years of support for the ever-expanding role of Washington in private matters under the guise of doing good. Now they are learning at what cost.

Obamacare’s virtually open-ended regulatory scheme gives government the power to dictate whatever the government deems necessary.

For decades, the entitlement-minded willingly accepted government-bestowed benefits in return for giving up freedoms. Now they discover they have traded constitutional rights for benefits to be determined solely by their supposedly benevolent governors.

The insidious pattern typically first offers benefits, such as taxpayer-subsidized pharmaceutical drugs, in return for voluntary compliance with rules determined by the government on eligibility, cost and coverage. If you want federal benefits, you must do what the government demands. But every new authority granted to government diminishes individuals’ free choices and hastens this inevitable outcome.

“(W)e have known for a long time where Obamacare’s implementation was heading,” said Matthew Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel Action, a nonprofit advocacy group dedicated to advancing religious freedom.

Now Obamacare has reached the ultimate phase of government intrusion. Voluntary compliance is not an option. Everyone must buy health care insurance, and bureaucrats have decided that coverage must include what the government demands. You will be forced to pay for even what you may abhor.